Introduction
My
name is Eleanor and I am a third year PhD student at the University of
Manchester. My research looks at queer sexuality in Samuel Beckett’s work
during the 1960s. You might know Samuel Beckett as the playwright who wrote Waiting for Godot, but did you know he
was also a novelist, poet, screenwriter, director for both television and film
and a short prose writer? My work focuses on the 1960s in particular because
Beckett’s work during this period begins to change into something much more minimal
(the scenery is often a plain white space, bodies nondescript and their actions
often simply breathing and sweating) and, simultaneously, much more gender-fluid.
Here I am giving a paper at the 4th Annual Beckett Society conference in Mexico City.In
Depth
At
school, my favourite subjects were English Literature, Religious Studies and
Art & Design. I never got on very well with Mathematics or any of the
sciences, although now, surprisingly, I find that I am using theories from
these disciplines in my work as well! My undergraduate degree was in English
Literature at the University of Sussex, and I did a Master's in Comparative
Literature at Queen Mary’s, University of London, which allowed me to study a
broader range of literature in other languages and in translation—as well as
translation theory—and to make more comparisons between subjects, such as
comparing literature with music, art and performance.[1]
This has helped a great deal with my current studies, as Beckett wrote in both
English and French, and did a lot of self-translation, as well as working in
aural and visual mediums.
My
current research brings queer theory to an area of Beckett Studies to which it
is absolutely crucial, while simultaneously allowing this research to reflect
back upon the current state of Sexuality Studies.[2]
The theoretical work that my thesis has opened up is different from what I had
imagined when I started my PhD, but in an exciting way! The journey you take
when you study literature can be unpredictable and messy and that’s what I love
about it. Often, you will find that literary criticism has been subject to
compulsory heterosexuality. This term was coined by groundbreaking feminist
scholar Adrienne Rich to explain how society expects, assumes and reinforces
heterosexuality as dominant. At its most basic, my work seeks to undo this.
I
also work as a Teaching Assistant, which has been an extremely rewarding role
and has taught me a great deal. When I graduate, I would like to continue to
teach at university level. I work as a Widening Participation Fellow, I am a
tutor on the MAP programme, I undertake Research Assistant work, and I am the administrator
of the Beckett Society. On top of this, I also have a part-time job as a
customer service assistant at an art supplies company. When you do a PhD
part-time, you have to keep a very strict calendar, and be very aware of your
limits.
Samuel BeckettGoing
Further…
The
reason that I fell in love with studying literature was theory. Theory is a
broad category, which encompasses all sorts of ideas, from feminism and Marxism
to deconstruction and psychoanalysis. Some people don’t see theory as very
valuable because it doesn’t have a material output, like a science subject
might. However, studying literature is important because it examines the bedrock
of our lives: not just language itself, but narrative and how it is
constructed. In studying literature, you are also able to examine the
narratives of productivity that are fed to us by society and find better ways
of ascribing value and importance.
A rainbow printed onto the road in the Castro District, San Francisco, ready for Pride celebrations.
[1] Translation theory asks at how best
to translate a text – can one translate for both sense and feel? How to make up for the importance of sound and rhythm?
How to make up for small but significant differences in meaning and account for
cultural context? It has been suggested, for example, that the translation of
poetry is impossible.
[2] Queer theory is a broad category of
theorizing that foregrounds sexuality and gender, reading texts through a lens
that is often denied us in critical theory. Eve Sedgwick, one of the most
famous queer theorists, suggests ‘it's about how you can't understand
relations between men and women unless you understand the relationship between
people of the same gender, including the possibility of a sexual relationship
between them.' This is why it is so crucial that queer theory be brought to
Beckett Studies, as this has so far been neglected in scholarship.
Introduction
My name is Gillian and I am an AHRC funded
first year PhD candidate at the University of Manchester. The focus of my
research is the medieval religious dramas (known as the mystery plays) that
originated from areas of the north of England, specifically those associated
with the cities of York and Chester, along with those contained in the Towneley
manuscript that appear to have some connection with the Wakefield area. I did
my undergraduate degree in English Literature at Manchester where my passion
for medieval literature soon became apparent. Having achieved a First Class
B.A., I went on to study my M.A. in Medieval Studies also at the University of
Manchester. Hard work is rewarded at Manchester – I got a scholarship which
enabled me to study for a Master’s with all fees waived!
In Depth…
Medieval literature may seem rather
irrelevant to a modern society, but I believe that there are important challenges
that we face today on global levels that have precedent in medieval society.
Negotiating borders and boundaries, tensions inherent in religious beliefs and
differences, the global economic and environmental challenges we face today –
all of these, I contend, were of concern to medieval people who imagined the
consequences of these challenges in ways which could appeal to an everyday,
non-academic audience. The texts of the religious dramas are, on a very basic
level, re-workings of Christian biblical narratives that depict the story of
the bible from Creation to Doomsday. But they are also much more than that.
People wrote how they spoke well into the seventeenth century (and in some
cases well beyond this) and so what you can also tell from these stories is
where these plays could have been best understood, in the region in which they
were written. They are regional texts written with a preferred audience in
mind. Part of the humour which, perhaps surprisingly, runs through these plays,
depends upon local dialects – they promote regionalism as a mode of belonging
just as much as any religious persuasion. My research is currently
investigating the plays’ depiction of Noah and the flood from the three
different regional perspectives of York, Chester, and the West Riding of
Yorkshire (Wakefield). The questions I am posing are whether the differences
between the plays’ dramatization of similar material is influenced by the
environment of their production – do they display an acknowledgement of the
very real threat of global environmental disaster caused by flooding that is of
concern to everyone today? Do they promote inclusive community reaction and
therefore action? Or do they display more individual responses that reveal
exclusions and self-interest? During the summer months I will be visiting both
York and Chester where the plays are being staged again. I want to ask the
people who go to see these plays today what they get out of them, why do they
still go? Why do the cities still produce these plays? What relevance do they
have in today’s society? Can they be produced to appeal to a multi-faith
international community, or do the choices taken by the producers of these
modern versions maintain notions of civic imperialism and Christian elitism? My
research will investigate these plays as transtemporal texts to suggest that
each rendering of familiar material has specific differences in order to offer
a very regional mode of both belonging and questioning as the following
medieval images reveal. The first image is from a manuscript housed in the John
Rylands library – look at all the fantastical beasts, and then see how the
raven pecks at the eye of the corpse not among the chosen few on Noah’s ark.
Were Noah and his family the first boat 
people, early refugees?
There are twelve people in the
image below, but only eight made it onto the ark – go figure!
How do the texts
respond to/replicate/question these contemporary images?
Going Further…
(www.inthemedievalmiddle.com) A really useful website
detailing the lastest research areas of key medieval scholars and the relevance
of medieval literature to modern society.
(www.alc.manchester.ac.uk) A key contact point for all
current information regarding entry requirements, course components, etc. in
the School of Arts, Languages, and Cultures at the University of Manchester.
(www.luminaruim.org) A veritable treasure trove
of free to access information/essays/texts on all things medieval.
(www.medievalsociety.blogspot.co.uk) Blog from the
Manchester Medieval Society which is run by current academics who are all at
the cutting edge of research in their fields. All are welcome to join and join
in!
by YPU Admin on March 19, 2015,
. Tags:
art, Chile, cinema, Cornerhouse, culture, film, history, Humanities, languages, latin-american, literature, manchester, music, Religion, Research, salsa, Spain, and spanish
Introduction
My name is Nicola and
I’m in the third year of a PhD in Latin American Cultural Studies. I did
A-levels in Spanish, English Literature and History and went on to study
Spanish at the University of St Andrews in Scotland, spending my year abroad in
the north of Chile. After returning to Chile for another year to teach English,
and then doing a Masters in Latin American Cultural Studies at the University
of Manchester, I began my PhD which looks at how members of the British public
engage with Latin American culture in the city of Manchester.
In Depth
The first thing to
point out about studying Spanish (or any language) at university level is that
it’s not just about the language! While your language skills are obviously
important and will be developed, you will also spend lots of time studying
foreign cultures and how other people around the world live and express
themselves. This can involve studying literature, film, music, art, history,
religion and indigenous cultures. And, in the case of Spanish, you don’t just
study Spain, but also Latin America!
After doing my
undergraduate degree and Masters, and living in Chile, I found myself
particularly interested in how Latin America is perceived in Britain. Latin
American culture, such as salsa classes, music, food and films have become
popular in this country over the past couple of decades, yet Latin Americans are
a relatively small immigrant population in the UK and not many people travel
there, although both have started to increase in recent years. My research
therefore investigates how Latin American culture is produced in the city of
Manchester and how members of the public consume it.
My research focuses in
particular on the annual ¡Viva! Spanish and Latin American Film Festival at the
Cornerhouse cinema. I analyse how the film festival is produced, the reasons
why they choose some films over others, why they choose particular images to
publicise the festival. By interviewing members of the audience, I can find out
whether these choices influence the way members of the audience envisage Latin
America, or if there are other factors to be considered, such as how the media
portrays Latin America. My research also investigates what attracts British
people to Latin American culture, especially whether it stems from a
cosmopolitan concern to understand others around the world, something
particular to Latin American culture and/or disenchantment with contemporary
British culture and society.
Going Further
See what you think of the ¡Viva! film festival at
their website: http://www.cornerhouse.org/viva2014?no-redir
For information on studying Spanish, Portuguese and
Latin American Studies at the University of Manchester: http://www.alc.manchester.ac.uk/subjects/splas
For more information on Latin Americans in the UK,
you might like to read this report on the Latin American community in London: http://www.geog.qmul.ac.uk/docs/research/latinamerican/48637.pdf
Introduction
Hi, I am Alfie, a final year PhD student completing a thesis in Literature
and Philosophy at the University of Manchester. My thesis discusses the social and political effects of
laughter in various contexts, and the way that laughter can be used and
deployed in texts such as literature and film. My other main project is a
editing a collective blog and a series of books called Everyday Analysis, which
attempts to bring together philosophy and everyday life in new and interesting
ways.
I have been at the University of Manchester for eight
years, having done an undergraduate degree and a Masters before my PhD. I teach philosophy, literature and poetry at
the University, and also at Manchester Metropolitan University and Liverpool
John Moore’s University.
In Depth
Having studied my literature degree at Manchester, I became
interested in comedy and laughter, not just in literature but in film, TV, and
in general social life. My interest is
in the various ways that laughter can be used to produce things and affect
people – the way it can be used to make people think and act in certain ways.
Take someone like Boris Johnson for instance – and the way that we are all
supposed to think of him as a silly old fool:
Newspapers and media productions which see themselves as
liberal and critical of Boris and his right-wing ways all love to mock and joke
about what an idiot he is. Take this
example from The Huffington Post.
I look at how these approaches are often more complex than
they seem. In Boris’s case for instance, he knows exactly what he is doing in painting
himself in this way. Much like George Bush, who made jokes about his own silly
Bushisms, Boris is ‘in on the joke.’ What Bush and Boris are doing is making a split – a split between the
silly old sod who makes stupid mistakes and embarrasses himself publicly and
the clever politician capable of seeing the funny side and doing serious and
intelligent thinking and policy making. The sillier and stupider Boris makes
himself seem to us, the most we are forced to assume that there must be another
Boris – the serious and real politician. His silliness and use of joking makes
it appear as though he is really a serious and successful man. Analysing the
role of laughter in our world can reveal important political tricks and
realities like this.
The other side of my work is a project to bridge the gap
between academia and the rest of the world.
I run a collective project called Everyday Analysis which analyses
everything from Justin Bieber to Angry Birds and The Gruffalo. On the blog and in our books, we analyse books, TV,
film, toys, games, posters, signs, political acts and literally anything which
can tell us something about the way we live in our society. We think some of
the most important texts of our world are not those considered ‘highbrow’ or
‘art’ but are popular and everyday things that we engage with, usually without
thinking about critically.
Going Further
Have a look at the
blog and follow us on Twitter or Facebook
My
main project is available here.
There
is also a book available here
You
can see a bit more about studying laughter and jokes in a literary context here at the Journal of Victorian Culture.
And you
might also find the Everyday Sexism project interesting.